The paper highlights some of the findings from a stud» carried out b» the author and eo-workers in the County of Avon, England, in 1981. The objective was to develop a methodology for evaluating the occupational health nursing resources and activities within a defined geographical region, which could then be applied to other areas including Malaysia. Data was collected by means of a postal ques...

Health services and policy (HSP) researchers have long used qualitative research methodologies to explore health system issues. However, the appropriateness of one approach, qualitative description, for HSP research is still often overlooked. In this article, I discuss the role that qualitative description can play in HSP research, and argue for its greater acceptance as a valid form of academi...

A former HHS secretary reflects on what's needed to enable more minorities to become doctors and other health professionals.

Editorial Occupational Health in the new NHS Occupational health services in the National Health Services (NHS) came late and still vary from district to district both in quantity and quality of service. From small beginnings, the provision of occupational health services has expanded and now every health district either has its own service or has hospitals within it with services oftheir own. ...

INTRODUCTION Physical activity is one of the most important health behaviours as a determinant of physical and mental health. Although intervention strategies for promoting physical activity among workers are needed, evidence for the effectiveness of multilevel workplace interventions with environmental changes on the promotion of physical activity are still limited due to lack of cluster rando...

Occupational health nurses use their knowledge and skills to improve the health and safety of the working population; however, companies increasingly face budget constraints and may eliminate health and safety programs. Occupational health nurses must be prepared to document their services and outcomes, and use quantitative tools to demonstrate their value to employers. The aim of this project ...

One requirement for successful occupational health care is reliable information on occupational hazards. The aim of this study was to develop a simple, standardised method for workplace investigations for use in occupational health care. The theoretical framework of the method comprises the stress-strain model, the hazard-danger model, and risk behaviour theory. The new method, termed job load ...

BACKGROUND Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is an important method used by occupational physicians (OPs) to deliver high quality health care. The presence and quality of a knowledge infrastructure is thought to influence the practice of EBM in occupational health care. This study explores the facilities in the knowledge infrastructure being used by OPs in different countries, and their perceived i...

The NSW Population Health Standards for Area Health Services have recently been introduced in NSW to assist area health services assess and improve performance in population health. Greater Western Area Health Service was the pilot site for trialling the Standards as a self-assessment tool. Following self-assessment, managers, population health staff and clinicians were asked for feedback. Staf...

BACKGROUND  In 2005, the University of Calgary entered into a contract to provide library services to the staff and physicians of Alberta Health Services Calgary Zone (AHS CZ), creating the Health Information Network Calgary (HINC). OBJECTIVES  A user satisfaction survey was contractually required to determine whether the new library service model created through the agreement with the Univer...